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Jamie Pesotine/Staff Photographer
Don Kellner poses for a photo in a plane at the Hazleton Municipal Airport in Hazle Township.

Two Butler Township men risked their lives three decades ago to save a 22-year-old skydiver after her parachute glided off course and she plunged through ice that covered Lake Irena in Hazle Township.

Kathleen Foster of Pittsburgh jumped with the Hazleton Ripcords that March day, but didn't land with the others at the Hazleton Municipal Airport.

A fellow skydiver, Don Kellner, saw her drifting away and landing at the lake in Hazle Township Community Park, he said.

"I saw her land there when I was under canopy," said Kellner, who holds the world record for the most skydives, on Friday in his office at the skydiving center at the airport.

Kellner and the others immediately drove to the lake, which is a few miles by car but only a couple hundred yards from the fenced-in airport property.

Foster's gear kept her from sinking below the freezing water, he said, but she was out in the middle of the lake surrounded by ice.

"When I got there, there was three feet of water to the ice," Kellner recalled. "I saw a very long branch, 20 feet probably, thinking I can get up on top of the ice and I swam out to the ice with my stick. I pushed down the ice and it cracked.

"I pushed down again and it cracked," he said. "I pushed down again and it cracked. I figured there was no way to reach her."

Kellner then remembered seeing Al Roman of No. 1 Contracting land his helicopter at the airport, and drove back to the terminal to call Roman at his Drums home.

"I said I need a helicopter now, no questions asked," he remembers telling Roman who radioed his son to ready the aircraft while he made his way back to the airport.

By then, emergency personnel arrived at the lake and readied a boat to reach Foster, who had been in the water nearly an hour.

Roman and Kellner reached the young woman first.

But as the helicopter swooped in, Foster's parachute billowed up, threatening to bring down the aircraft, Roman said.

"We couldn't get near it because that would have been too dangerous," he said.

Foster removed the harness, Kellner said, explaining that skydivers train to take off the harness in order to free themselves of the parachutes. Then, they brought the helicopter in again and the chute blew away, he said.

"We blew it up and blew it away and she was still there," said Kellner, who then tried to pull her out of the water. "I couldn't lift her."

They continued to hover, when Kellner came up with another plan. He didn't tell Roman what he was going to do, only to keep the helicopter steady and in 20 seconds lift up and head for the shore.

"He jumped out of the helicopter and into the water," Roman said, remembering how he then felt the aircraft shift from the additional weight and moved toward the shore. "I feel a jerk and I knew he had a hold of her. I picked the two of them up and carried them to the shore."

Kellner had secured a static line, or cord, to the helicopter before he jumped into the lake, and grasped onto Foster, he said. Roman lifted both of them out of the water, bringing them to the land, he said.

"Without Don Kellner, this would have never happened," Roman said. "There is no one who would do such a stupid thing."

Foster had turned blue from being in the cold water for so long, and her body temperature dropped to a dangerous 85 degrees.

"Another 10 minutes and she would have been dead," Roman said.

Emergency personnel tried to attend to Kellner, who had gone into the water twice fully clothed.

"You need to be treated," he remembered them saying. "I said, 'Get the hell out of here.'"

Kellner returned to the airport terminal, where people asked if they could do anything for him, he said. He told one person to get a case of beer and another to take off his high-laced boots, Kellner said, and they had some beer.

Roman joined them, he said, though he didn't think the helicopter pilot was one to drink.

It wasn't Roman's first rescue, though. Seven years before pulling Kellner and Foster out of the lake, he rescued a then 22-year-old Joe Bogwist from strip mine after he fell some 250 feet down a sheer rock wall.

"That was the worst. I've took big chances," said Roman, who used his helicopter nearly 100 times to help others - many needing medical attention or treatment out of the area before medical helicopters became commonplace. "I never charged anyone. There wasn't any help like that."

Roman believes in helping others, reasoning that one day he may be the one in need of aid, he said.

"If something happened today, I'd get into a helicopter and do it today," he said. "It's all in a day's work."

Foster remained hospitalized overnight and was released the next morning with minor cuts being the only signs of her ordeal.

Kellner doesn't remember her skydiving much afterwards, he said. Foster, an experienced skydiver, had made more than 50 jumps with the Ripcords when she landed off course.

Foster contacted Kellner a few years ago, saying she was going to write about her experience and send him a copy, but he never received one.

At 77, Kellner continues to skydive and continues to teach others the sport.

kmonitz@standardspeaker.com

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